


Two Avatars and a Mistake

by remi_wolf



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: (doesn't really get mentioned but it's a thing), Attempted Kidnapping, Broken Bones, Cigarettes, End Avatar Gerard Keay, Gen, Gerard Keay Has EDS | Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Gerry's out of the skin book, Hunt Avatars, Kidnapping, On the Run, Whumptober 2020, past captivity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:06:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26850361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/remi_wolf/pseuds/remi_wolf
Summary: Something happened when Jon pulled his page free from the book. Gerry has no idea what, but rather than disappearing into the aether like he always does when he's dismissed from the book, he instead gains solid form again. Somehow, he's alive, again. At least, he's quasi-alive. Alive enough where he's solid and starving and his hands tremble and his body aches like it hasn't in years. Staying with the two mad Hunters is even less appealing like this than it had been as a book, and so he runs.Whumptober 2020, Day 5: Where Do You Think You're Going? Prompt: On the Run
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31
Collections: Beguilements and Distractions, Remi's Whumptober Collection for 2020, Whumptober 2020





	Two Avatars and a Mistake

Gerry took a deep breath, shivering in what was essentially a damp gutter. Well, he really wasn’t sure if there was any other way to describe it, even if he was sitting and trying to figure out where to go next. It was damp, the little divot he was sitting next to led to a drain, and while it wasn’t a proper curb, it was still a damp gutter in the end. 

At least he had the cigarette in his hand to try and soothe his shaking hands, even if he didn’t entirely know how to move his fingers enough to smoke it. His hands shook worse than some addicts he knew, and while he thought he slightly deserved being in such a rough state, he didn’t know if he actually could survive this way much longer. Not that he exactly needed more time. He should already have worked through his mortal clock and engine long ago, but somehow...he hadn’t. He hadn’t, and he was breathing, and shivering in the damp, and he had the royal pleasure of having two Hunters trying to track him down. How was he expected to manage that when he didn’t even know where he was?

He supposed that was the point, after all. Or at least, the point of Hunters. You couldn’t outrun them. Not really. Not in the end. However...

He sighed, eyes falling shut as he felt everything settle and smooth out to his bones. However, he could feel the cold inevitability that had wrapped itself around his bones and kept him upright when, by all accounts, he should be dead. He  _ was _ dead, really. Or he had been. Jon had even stolen his page. Why hadn’t he at least gone with that page? Beyond that, what would happen to him when Jon burned the page? Or was he unmoored from the book entirely when the Archivist had pulled the page free of the bindings?

“This way. I think I smell him this way. Smells like death.”

Gerry’s eyes widened as he looked up at the voice. He couldn’t see the old man yet, nor the woman, but he needed to get moving. He bolted, running farther down the alleyway. He knew he was too loud, had made his running too obvious, especially as he heard the barks of laughter coming from the two of them. Twin sets of heavy boots followed after him, and he glanced back long enough to see their faces, twisted and distorted in the half-light of the street lamps on either side of the alleyway. They were still far from him, at least fifty or sixty feet, but he knew he couldn’t last forever. He needed to find somewhere safe in order to ensure that he could properly rest and heal from whatever the End had done to him, but first he needed to prove himself worthy and get away from this end that wasn’t the appropriate End for him. 

“Get him, Julia! He’s close, he’s slowing already,” Trevor yelled, and Gerry couldn’t help the quiet groan as he forced his legs to move faster before leaping up to catch a fire escape. Maybe that would be enough. Trevor’s ankles hadn’t been the same since that Flesh hunt half a dozen weeks ago. He wouldn’t be able to climb as easily, though Julia would be a question. He didn’t know how close the buildings were to each other, but death at the hands of a snapped neck from a failed jump would be better than the two of them ripping him apart or continuing to hold him captive to use as an undead encyclopedia. 

He started clambering up the escape, hands burning as he gripped the rusted stairs and pulled himself faster up. He was fairly sure he had ripped one open on a corner of the metal earlier on, but he couldn’t stop to check. If he checked, he didn’t know what he’d do if there wasn’t blood, or if it wasn’t normal. 

Everything burned, though. His lungs weren’t used to this. He had left his cigarette behind, fuck. That was the only one he had. Pulling himself over the edge of the rooftop was a chore, the metal and brick digging into his stomach as he kept forcing himself to run. Even if she was still two stories below him, Gerry could hear her heavy breaths, and they felt wet against the back of his neck. He needed to move faster. He had to move faster. If he didn’t move faster, he was going to die at the hands of a stupid Hunter, and it wouldn’t even be Gertrude. Nor would it be Tommy. At least he respected Tommy, even if he knew he would have needed to kill him soon, assuming he had stayed alive and didn’t die to a stupid brain tumor. 

His shins hurt, deep pain sinking into the bone as his feet crunched over gravel and over the metal of the rooftop of the building, and he could hear Julia close behind him as he slid across the glass of a sky light, and then he could hear Trevor’s huffing breath as well. Close. He was over halfway across the roof. He’d be able to keep going. Run, and then jump, and then hopefully catch his breath on the other rooftop for a moment before resuming the run. 

Ten feet. 

Five feet. 

Three steps. 

Two.

One.

Gerry jumped, not trusting that he wouldn’t land short of the next building. While it wasn’t far, he wasn’t used to this any more, and while the moment of brief weightlessness was filled with hope, the hand that caught the back of his jacket snatched that away from him. Julia’s breath left her chest as he fell and his weight, as little as it was, forced her chest against the edge of the roof, and she snarled. 

“Fucking asshole. We’ve been running all night. You think you can just leave us high and dry?”

Gerry rolled his eyes at her snarled words. Of course he could. It was either leave on his own terms, or get worked into oblivion as he tried to give them information that would eventually get them killed. “You’re the one that wasn’t paying attention at all.”

“Oh, don’t pin this on us. We’ve been good to you. We’ve been taking care of you, and taking care of your stupid book. And we’ve been fighting the good fight.”

Gerry couldn’t help the laugh as he looked up at Trevor, shifting in his jacket. A plan was slowly forming in his head, but he needed to just distract a moment longer before he could properly think it through. Even if thinking it through was likely a bad idea. “You think you’ve been fighting a good fight?”

“We know we are. Not like you and your stupid Institute.” Julia’s face twisted, and Gerry shrugged. He couldn’t exactly argue with that. The Magnus Institute really was awful, as were the people employed there, even if he did think that Jon was a good man. Too bad he was the Head Archivist. That would just get wrung free of him sooner or later.

“Look. Just...you two need to stop Hunting. There’s no good fight. You hunting is what’s giving you things to Hunt,” Gerry said, glancing between the two of them. He glanced briefly down at the ground. If only Michael was there. Maybe Michael would be able to help. He’d have to figure out how to contact him. The unnatural confusion with the Spiral should help to counteract the Hunt enough to get him far away from them. 

“Oh, likely story. You know, I never wanted to hunt before—”

“Before your first one, I know.” Gerry’s eyes snapped back up to Trevor as he looked at him. Old man. Definitely dead if he tried to abandon the Hunt. Really, they both were at this point, unfortunately. “But I’m telling you, there’s no good fight. There’s no bad fight. It’s just a fight and it’s only going to hurt you if you’re human.”

“Bullshit!”

Gerry glanced at Julia before taking a deep breath. This was going to fucking hurt. He shrugged before slipping his arms through his coat. 

Weightlessness overtook him immediately again as he fell, and he knew he didn’t have long. He caught himself on a ledge long enough to slow his fall, considering he couldn’t help the grimace of pain as he felt his arms strain and his shoulders nearly come out of their sockets with his weight. His fingers couldn’t keep a hold of the ledge as long as he wanted, but at least it slowed his fall a bit.

Landing hurt, though. Landing hurt like a bitch. 

Pain radiated up from his ankles and into his knees as he entirely fell. He looked up just long enough to see Julia and Trevor scream in frustration, ripping his jacket apart, and he rolled over, immediately starting to bolt again. There wasn’t any time to lose. He had a head start on them again, and he needed to find Michael before they caught his trail again.

**Author's Note:**

> Gerry! I love Gerry Delano so much. He's a delight. I sorta? like this concept? So i might continue it at some point. Maybe he'll get picked up by Michael Distortion. Maybe he'll get picked up by someone else. I don't know yet. All I know is that he's got a few dislocated joints and probably a half-dozen fractures in his ankles and legs after the stunt he just pulled.


End file.
